Jackson, The Man Birth – Early Life - PowerPoint Presentation

Jackson, The Man

Birth – Early Life Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767 , to Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Scots-Irish colonists who emigrated from Ireland in 1765 . Jackson’s birth came just three weeks after the sudden death of his father at the age of 29 .  Growing up in poverty in the Waxhaw’s wilderness, Jackson received an erratic education in the years before the Revolutionary War came to the Carolinas. After his older brother Hugh died in the Battle of Stone Ferry in 1779 , the future president joined a local militia at age 13 and served as a patriot courier. 

Involvement in the Revolution as a young boy… Captured by the British along with his brother Robert in 1781, Jackson was left with a permanent scar from his imprisonment after a British officer gashed his left hand and slashed his face with a sword because the young boy refused to polish the Redcoat’s boots . While in captivity the brothers contracted smallpox, from which Robert would not recover. A few days after the British authorities released the brothers in a prisoner exchange, Robert died.

Tragedy Not long after his brother's death, Jackson's mother died of cholera contracted while she nursed sick and injured soldiers. At the age of 14, Jackson was orphaned, and the deaths of his family members during the Revolutionary War led to a lifelong hatred of the British. 

Early Adulthood Raised by his uncles, Jackson began studying law in Salisbury, North Carolina, in his late teens. He was admitted to the bar in 1787, and soon after, the 21-year-old Jackson was appointed prosecuting attorney in the western district of North Carolina, an area that is now part of Tennessee. He moved to the frontier settlement of Nashville in 1788 and eventually became a wealthy landowner from the money he accumulated from a thriving private practice .

Early Adulthood In 1796, Jackson was a member of the convention that established the Tennessee Constitution and was elected Tennessee's first representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate the following year, but resigned after serving only eight months. In 1798, Jackson was appointed a circuit judge on the Tennessee superior court, serving in that position until 1804.

Military Career Although he lacked military experience, Andrew Jackson was appointed a major general of the Tennessee militia in 1802. During the War of 1812 he led U.S. troops on a five-month campaign against the British-allied Creek Indians, who had massacred hundreds of settlers at Fort Mims in present-day Alabama.

Military Career The campaign culminated with Jackson’s victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, which resulted in the killing of some 800 warriors and the eventual procurement by the United States of 20 million acres of land in present-day Georgia and Alabama. After this military success, the U.S. military promoted Jackson to major general. 

Military Career Without specific instructions, he led his forces into the Spanish territory of Florida and captured the outpost of Pensacola in November 1814 before following British troops to New Orleans. Following weeks of skirmishes in December 1814, the two sides clashed on January 8, 1815. Although outnumbered nearly two-to-one, Jackson led 5,000 soldiers to an unexpected victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the last major engagement of the War of 1812. 

Military Career Dubbed a national hero , Jackson received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal. He was also popular among his troops, who said that Jackson was "as tough as old hickory wood" on the battlefield, earning him the nickname " Old Hickory .”

Political Successes Jackson’s military exploits made him a rising political star, and in 1822 the Tennessee Legislature nominated him for the presidency of the United States. To boost his credentials, Jackson ran for and won election to the U.S. Senate the following year. 

Political Successes In 1824, state factions rallied around “Old Hickory,” and a Pennsylvania convention nominated him for the U.S. presidency. Though Jackson won the popular vote, no candidate gained a majority of the Electoral College vote, which threw the election to the House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Henry Clay, who had finished fourth in the electoral vote, pledged his support to Jackson’s primary opponent, John Quincy Adams, who emerged victorious. At first Jackson accepted the defeat, but when Adams named Clay as secretary of state, his backers decried what they saw as a backroom deal that became known as the “ Corrupt Bargain .” 

Political Successes The negative reaction to the House's decision resulted in Jackson's re-nomination for the presidency in 1825, three years before the next election. It also split the Democratic-Republican Party in two. The grassroots supporters of “Old Hickory” called themselves Democrats and would eventually form the Democratic Party. Jackson's opponents nicknamed him "jackass," a moniker that the candidate took a liking to—so much so that he decided to use the symbol of a donkey to represent himself. Though the use of that symbol died out, it would later become the emblem of the new Democratic Party.

Political Successes After a bruising campaign, Andrew Jackson—with South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun as his vice-presidential running mate—won the presidential election of 1828 by a landslide over Adams . With his election, Jackson became the first frontier president and the first chief executive who resided outside of either Massachusetts or Virginia.Jackson was the first president to invite the public to attend the inauguration ball at the White House, which quickly earned him popularity. 

US Presidency   Andrew Jackson did not submit to Congress in policy-making and was the first president to assume command with his veto power . While prior presidents rejected only bills they believed unconstitutional, Jackson set a new precedent by wielding the veto pen as a matter of policy .  

US Presidency Still upset at the results of the 1824 election, he believed in giving the power to elect the president and vice president to the American people by abolishing the Electoral College , garnering him the nickname the "people's president." Campaigning against corruption, Jackson became the first president to widely replace incumbent officeholders with his supporters, which became known as the “ spoils system .”

US Presidency In perhaps his greatest feat as president, Jackson became involved in a battle with the Second Bank of the United States , a theoretically private corporation that actually served as a government-sponsored monopoly. Jackson saw the bank as a corrupt, elitist institution that manipulated paper money and wielded too much power over the economy. His opponent for re-election in 1832, Henry Clay, believed the bank fostered a strong economy. 

US Presidency Another political opponent faced by Jackson in 1832 was an unlikely one—his own vice president. Following the passage of federal tariffs in 1828 and 1832 that they believed favored Northern manufacturers at their expense, opponents in South Carolina passed a resolution declaring the measures null and void in the state and even threatened secession. Vice President Calhoun supported the principle of nullification along with the notion that states could secede from the Union. 

US Presidency During Jackson’s second term, he was the target of the first presidential assassination attempt in American history . As he was leaving a memorial service for a congressman inside the U.S. Capitol on January 30, 1835, deranged house painter Richard Lawrence emerged from the crowd and pointed a single-shot gold pistol at the president. When the gun failed to shoot, Lawrence pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. The infuriated Jackson charged the shooter and hammered him with his cane while bystanders subdued the attempted assassin.